How I got into coding by mistake

From a rejected lost & hopeless student with no passion for coding to a very happy coder full of positivity

One rejection can change your life, career or business.

This was something I never thought could happen to me.

Until I got rejected from 10 engineering schools and I lost hope.

I lost the one thing that could keep me going forward.

Here is my story:

👇

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Let’s go 4 years back in time (2018):

Photo by Sonja Langford on Unsplash

I am 17 in my last year of high school.

I am hoping to get in an engineering school next year to be a civil engineer.

It seemed like an interesting field to me at the time.

That’s what my dad have told me. He dreamed about being a civil engineer but he couldn’t make it.

He kept telling me how much money I could make and how happy I’d be.

But not everything we dream about in life can happen.

I graduated from high school but with not enough grades that would get me into an engineering school. I started getting so scared.

But I applied anyways.

And I GOT REJECTED.

I was like “Oh My God I am screwed! What should I do now?”

One last thing that I had left is university. I didn’t want to go there because in my country engineering schools are of better quality than universities. But I had no choice.

So I got in. Computer Science major.

I am a CS student now. How exciting!! 😒

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Is this even for me? What am I getting into?

Photo by Emily Morter on Unsplash

Coding is for nerds and weirdos. Not for me.

I was never passionate about it. I never thought I’d have a career in coding: writing totally stupid nonsense on the keyboard.

I must admit that I had some sort of curiosity to know how a robot can walk or speak. How a drone can fly by only using a controller.

But to work in tech? I’d NEVER do that.

I started questioning everything about what I am currently doing and my future. It’s like everything that I dreamed about just disappeared.

I was completely lost.

Why am I here? What am I gonna do after? Where would I be in 5 or 10 years from now?

But I found out later that civil engineering wasn’t even MY dream. It never was. It was my DAD’s. I was born to do something else.

I just needed to know what is it.

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Steve Jobs was my guide…

Photo by Elia Pellegrini on Unsplash

Back in 2018/2019 I was reading a lot, two books per month on average.

I discovered Steve Jobs’ biography by Walter Isaacson.

This dude impressed me. I couldn’t believe it.

His story is incredible.

Adopted, poor, went through a lot in his life.

He was also rejected from his own company but he never let that stop him.

UNBELIEVABLE!

Reading the book has changed so many things for me: my mindset, my ambitions and goals in life.

How you can touch people’s hearts by making tech products. This is so impressive.

I want to work in tech.

This is MY WORLD…

But I need to change things in my environment first.

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DONE? Alright let’s keep going…

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“I am not born to be stuck in a hamster wheel”

Photo by Matt Bero on Unsplash

The environment I live in (parents, family, classmates…) has a really limited mindset.

This is how a good life looks to them:

1) You graduate from high school

2) You go to university or engineering school

3) You work hard to get good marks

4) You get your degree

5) You get a full-time job in a cubicle.

In that order.

Same old job, same routine, same tasks.

• Day after day

• Week after week

• Year after year

I can’t do that. That’s not the life I want to live. I am not born for that.

I am not born to be stuck in a hamster wheel.

I am a human being and as a human being I have dreams and ambitions that I want to achieve. Maybe I can’t achieve them all but I wanna achieve as much as humanly possible.

The goal is to have a better life than my dad’s and give my future kids a better life than mine.

I am 100% sure knowing how to code would help me with that. There is literally no limits to what I can build, I can even have my own business.

There has never been a better time to get into tech.

But I can’t do that alone. I need some support and somebody to push me forward.

I can never get that from my parents. I don’t have friends in real life because I cut my relationship with all of them - I wanted to grow, they didn’t.

So I looked somewhere else.

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Using social media to my advantage

Photo by Chang Duong on Unsplash

Social media especially Twitter is a really great place if you know how to use it and who to surround yourself with.

I got the chance to meet so many incredible people also building projects, running businesses and achieving goals.

INCREDIBLE!

How about me? Why not joining them?

That’s how I discovered the Building in public universe for the first time.

You won’t know the benefits of building in public until you start doing it by yourself.

I never thought about sharing my work on social media before.

I was used to work in private on projects that I would add to my portfolio and resume to get a job. That was my end goal.

BUT… I needed to change my goal. Getting a job wasn’t motivating enough for me. I was abandoning projects midway through.

Before joining the #buildinpublic community, no one knew what I was doing.

When I started interacting with other creators and also trying to build projects in public myself I could see how much potential there is.

And that’s how I built my first project - MovyDick.

I really loved what I was building but with my limited coding skills I thought so many times about giving up. Twitter people never let me.

After launching MovyDick I took some time off then I came back, built the V2.0, launched it then started working on Youtalgo.

All that because of MY NEW FAMILY.

I never felt such excitement and enthusiasm for anything before.

I was born to do that and nothing else.

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Reply to this right now and tell me about you.

Even if you think it’s boring… I want to hear about it.

Not feeling comfortable sharing your story? No worries.

Just hit “reply” and say “Hey!” (I love meeting cool people)

Talk Soon,

Amine